British Airways: Marketing Concepts, Strategies, and Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of British Airways' marketing principles and practices. It begins with an introduction to key marketing concepts and terminology, followed by an explanation of the marketing concepts and principles employed by British Airways, including the 7Ps of marketing. The report then identifies and discusses the marketing strategies and programs that have helped British Airways achieve its objectives, along with an examination of the ethical considerations involved. Furthermore, it delves into the cross-functional relationships between the marketing department and other departments within the airline. The report incorporates a PEST analysis to evaluate the political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing British Airways' operations. The analysis includes product strategy, branding strategy, and promotion strategies. The report offers a complete overview of BA's marketing strategies.

MARKETING
PRINCIPLES &
PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Explain key marketing concepts and terminology ................................................................3
Explain the marketing concepts and principles .....................................................................5
Identify the marketing strategies and programs that helped achieve their objectives. Were
these objectives achieved in an ethical manner?....................................................................7
Identify and discuss the cross-functional relationship of marketing and other departments. 8
CONCLUSION-..............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing Principles and Practices helps in studying the fundamental marketing concepts at
work in today's business environment. Discuss marketing language, retailing, wholesaling,
promotion, and advertising functions examine their interplay and timing; and learn how they
propel a business. British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom,
headquartered at Waterside, Harmondsworth, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. It
is the second largest airline in the United Kingdom, based on fleet size and passengers carried,
behind easyJet. In January 2011 BA merged with Iberia, creating the International Airlines
Group(IAG), a holding companyregistered in Madrid, Spain. IAG is the world's third-largest
airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe. It is listed on
the London Stock Exchange and in the FTSE 100 Index. British Airways is the first passenger
airline to have generated more than $1 billion on a single air route in a year (from 1 April 2017,
to 31 March 2018, on the New York JFK - London. This report covers issues such as concepts of
marketing and its terminology, the marketing concept and its principles, strategies of marketing
which has helped the company to achieve their objectives and the cross functional relationship of
marketing department with other department.
Explain key marketing concepts and terminology
Product strategy-
This concept helps the company to hold their consumers by offering them high quality
goods and services with providing them the features which are innovative for them. The
company is focusing on improving the products on a continuous basis. Quality of the product and
making improvement in them according to the requirements as it is important for them to cope
up with the strategies and implement them in a presenting manner. For instance if the company
people want to travel in Boeing 747 but they cannot because of the higher rates then company
will introduce a economic section for the people so that they can afford it. British airways
compete with many international airlines and that is why it is necessary for the company to
position their brand well in the eyes of target audience. Apart from this to maintain the flow of
operations in a smooth manner they conduct the analysis of macro environment and all the
factors under it so that they can cope up with the changing trends in the market. With that they
will also get to know that in which countries they have demand, technologies that they need to

change and implement in their planes. Economy of the country will help the company to make
the budget of the company in an appropriate manner. (Sun, Garrett and Kim, 2016.)
Branding Strategy-
The company values their employees just like they value their customers. The if they
maintain good relations with the employees then they will automatically increase the reach of the
brand. It helps the company to formulate the values and the culture they have. Company sticks to
the goals and provide them with the same kind of quality service so that they can maintain the
consistency and does not affect the image of the brand. To improve the consistency the company
has created the guidelines for branding. Another strategy for branding which the company uses is
making connections through emotions. They have founded a way which helps them to connect
with them so that they can easily enhance it and sustain it for a very long period of time. The
purpose of the company is increasing the competitive advantage and improve the quality of their
services so that they can increase their revenues which will help them to beat other companies
and grab more share in market. (Camilleri, 2018.)
Promotion Strategy-
Company use content marketing so that they can grab the attention of more customers
which will help them to increase the share in the market. It is considered as one of the best tools
which gives satisfactory results. The main reason behind the success of this strategy is that they
share their content of attributes with the audience they have targeted. It is a part of digital
marketing that is why its reach is also bigger and help the company to increase the awareness.
For instance British Airways wants to increase the sales so they will share the points to the
audience in which they are ahead of their competitors such as safety, features in the flights,
services in the flights offered and the affordable pricing as compared to others with providing
them the facility of allowing more baggage in the flight. They provide refund to the customers if
they had to go through any kind of difficulties at the time of travel. It is similar to the strategy of
money back as it will influence the customers to book their tickets because they have the
assurety if anything goes wrong then they will get their amount fully refunded. To hold the
customers who are loyal to the company they provide them with the facility of rebate. It is done
at the time of peak season as the purchase quantity at that time is high so they provide some of
them with this facility.

Explain the marketing concepts and principles
7 P's of British Airways-
Product-
British Airways is considered as the flagship airline of UK. The service they offer to their
customers is of high quality. The service they offer which is to take people to one place from
another is their product mix. The company has many models of Boeing 777, 787, 747. They are
updated with the latest technology. They offer their tickets to every class of customers according
to their preference. (Hamilton, 2018.)
Price-
The company has a aim that anyone can easily afford the tickets of their planes. That is
why they have adapted the policy of which helps them to provide reasonable value to their
customers. They have divided sections for their customers such as economy, premium economy
and business class. Prices of the tickets can vary on the basis of duration of the booking. It tells
that the company uses the differentiation strategy of pricing. The company also gives discount to
those customers who are regular to them under the scheme of frequent flier miles. Apart from
this company has to check the margin of profits on a regular basis because the prices of fuels are
increasing a lot. (Resnick and et.al., 2016.)
Place-
The company takes on to their customers around 400 destinations and they have around
273 planes. Headquarters of the company is situated in Waterside near London Heathrow
Airport. To maintain the operations in a smooth way and without disruption that is why the
company has maintained good relations with the authority of airport. (von der Heidt, 2018.)
Promotion-
Company uses various tools such as TV, newspapers and billboards. They have also
partnered in the Olympics at 2012. Justin Rose has been the brand ambassador of the company.
They promoted their airlines through a film such as Planes. They sponsor many events such as
charity, cultural and sporting to promote their brand. It is ensured by the company that the
strategy they use is right as the message they highlight to people is sophisticated and classy.
They have opened up an application for people as many people find it convenient to book tickets
from there.
People-

The CEO and head of the management is Willie Walsh. Totally company has employees
over 40,000 of which 15,000 comes in cabin crew, 3,600 pilots and 5,500 engineers. Pilots of the
company go through many tests which are tough and the recruitment of cabin crew is done from
the top level of industries of hospitality. (Saunders, Barrington and Sridharan, 2015.)
Process-
The company has started a new service of E-Ticketing which helps in saving the time of
consumers as it takes only one minute to book from that tool. Company has only started it in
Germany and Britain. Process in this industry begins from booking then goes through boarding
pass, luggage check in, arriving at the airport, boarding the flight and taking on all the services
that the company offer to the people who are in the flight and getting the luggage at the time of
arrival.
Physical Evidence-
The experience that the company offers to their customers though it is intangible but it is
evident physically for the company. Planes that the company has its design and its cabin all
comes under this aspect.
STP of British Airways-
Segmentation-
British Airways segments the market on the basis of psycho graphic and demographic
segmentation so that they can identify those characteristics of the market which are important
and helps the company to evaluate each and every segment of the customers and their nature.
Targeting-
The customers which are segmented are rewarded by the company with the help of
loyalty programmes that is the reason the company uses differentiated strategy of targeting so
that they can identify the attractiveness and the attention of each segment. (Salvo, 2015)
Positioning-
British Airways has positioned themselves on the basis of the position of leadership in the
strategic markets, customer groups which are diverse and alliances. The company use the class of
customer based strategy for positioning themselves.
Identify the marketing strategies and programs that helped achieve their objectives. Were
these objectives achieved in an ethical manner?
PEST Analysis of British Airways-
Political Factors-

The company faced many difficulties as they were providing their services even at the
time of terrorist attacks in major areas such as Paris, Nice, Brussels and above that they were
concerned for the issue of Brexit which was the exit of Britain from the Economic Union which
will change many rules and regulations in the country. The company was concerned that how it
will affect the economy. The currency of Euro began to drop against the US dollar. They
predicted that the situations were about to get worse but the government took a decision to add a
third runway at the airport of Heathrow in order to expand the operations of the UK airport
where British Airways conducted most of their operations and this became a positive news for
the company as they had the scope to increase their operations and engage in more routes.
(French and Russell-Bennett, 2015. )
Economic Factors-
The revenue of the company was increasing in different countries but it was because of
the weakening of the pound against different countries that made the negative impact on the
outcome of the country. On the contrary there were also some positive things which happened
after Brexit for the company and that was low prices of fuels and rate of interest which benefited
the company and help them to grow and expand their operations by increasing the capacity and
giving tough competition to their competitors. The best impact of the Brexit was to negotiate
with the British firms as they faced negative impact because of this decision. (Rowley, 2016.)
Social Factors-
Company need to make new strategies and formulate some new policies for the group
they have targeted. The reason behind this was at the time when people travel more and company
serves more customers the low demand of cost may change their attitude and may affect the
image of the company. Apart from this the company also had to face huge amount of losses
because of the strike of air traffic control in France as that resulted in many cancellations of the
flight. Overall after all these factors it is better for the company to take the factors which are
related to social and cultural to take into considerations so that they can work on to satisfying
more and more needs of consumers and the potential of size of the market. British Airways needs
to put their focus on the changing trends of consumers, their taste and preferences and how they
maintain their lifestyle. It is necessary because they are the opportunities for the company which
can help them to increase their share and if any drawback arises then they will be able to
overcome them. (Fletcher and et.al., 2017. )
Technological Factors-

The impact of 9/11 and those terrorist attacks has impacted the aviation industry so bad
that they have still not been able to overcome some of the drawbacks. Industry still has to
develop in many aspects and maintain the stability which is relative. The entire power which has
bring the need of development is because of internet. It is because of the internet that digital
aspects has been revolutionized and the role it plays is important for every company operating in
this industry. British Airways can has many options to explore and develop in the aspect of
technology drastically so that they can reduce the disruption and its impact on the digital field.
This is the reason that the company is investing heavily so that they can enable and enhance the
requirement of development so that they can safeguard their interests and provide quality
services to their consumers. (Bowie and et.al., 2016.)
Identify and discuss the cross-functional relationship of marketing and other departments
Marketing with the department of Research and Development-
In many company the department of research and development and the department of
marketing coexist. People who are in the department of research and development feels that they
are the ones who makes and the people who are in the department of marketing usually takes. It
is necessary for British Airways to keep an eye on both the departments because if they both are
isolated then the company won't be able to survive. Department of research and development
cannot get the input data about the taste and preferences of the buyers and the opportunities that
are existing in the market. Marketing depends on the aspect of research and development as they
help them to generate new ideas that helps to increase the level of profit in the company.
(Massiera, Gilmore and Sellami, 2018.)
Marketing with the department of Production-
There are many areas where the department of marketing and department of production
don't meet with each other and engage in conflicts at many levels. For instance production
department wants to make changes in the planes so that they can meet up with the demand of
technological changes whereas marketing department does not agree on this issue. Apart from
this the department of marketing don't want to spend a huge amount of money that provide high
quality to the consumers but the department of production keeps on insisting it. If both the
departments don't work together then company won't be able to make progress in the market. It is
necessary for both the departments to go hand in hand and work together in order to achieve their
goals.
Marketing with the department of Finance-

Finance department of British Airways is concerned with making the budget for the
company so that they can maintain the flow of operations without any disruptions. They maintain
the control of expenses, cycle of payment and the decisions which are related to credit. On the
other hand marketing department of the company is flexible in nature as they don't have
responsibilities other than to promote the brand. They need to work together because marketing
department gets their funds approved from the finance department and without marketing
department finance department won't be able to make appropriate budgets because they won't
know how much money is needed in which area. That is why both the departments needs to carry
the task and work with each other than work for themselves. (Kubacki and et.al., 2015. )
Marketing with the department of HR-
The department of marketing of British Airways is majorly relied on the department of
HR as they need the information about the supply, marketing and sales. Department of HR gives
training to the employees of British Airways so that they can work according to the their
potential and learn the tactics of marketing and promote the brand with a more stronger
approach. Both the departments of the company also goes through some issues and conflict still
the marketing department of the company has realized that the success of the team of marketing
is because of the team of HR as they are the ones who recruit the suitable candidates with talent,
provide them with appropriate training and give them proper amount of training so that they can
excel in their work.
CONCLUSION-
From the above studies it has been concluded that British Airways need is one of the leading
companies in the market and it has been in the market since 1974 which has given them plenty of
time to create their goodwill. British Airways is facing a lot of competition from many
companies so they have to improve the quality of their services so that they can beat them
without getting affected at any stage. The department of marketing faces issues while
coordinating with others they also engage in conflicts with them but it is necessary for them to
maintain it as their success depends on it. If they work in isolation then they won't be able to
survive in the market. PEST analysis of the company has shown that in some of the areas they
have been critically affected due to Brexit but it has also opened up new opportunities for the
company to improve and expand their operations. Third runway at the airport of Heathrow will
increase the no of fights the company operates as most of the flights they take are from that
routes which will help the company to increase their revenues. Finance department of British

Airways is concerned with making the budget for the company so that they can maintain the flow
of operations without any disruptions whereas marketing department of the company is flexible
in nature as they don't have responsibilities other than to promote the brand.

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